Diane's Flower Garden

Created for Project Quilting Quarantine 2020 Q.1 Big Challenge

I saw this challenge Sunday, and had no idea what to do.  Then I got out of bed on Monday morning to see sunshine! Spring! Hope! Gardening!

My first thought was one giant 3D flower. I started going through my saved ideas, but nothing felt right. I needed a full flower garden.  I've been making 3D flowers for awhile and had some (well, actually, lots) already made because when I start making them I can't stop. And when I want them for a project, I'm never sure how many or which ones until I'm sewing them on. Now, that means I didn't make them all this week. You may think that's cheating, but I look at these as embellishments ready to be sewn on. I did find I had no zinnias and I really wanted some, so I made up a few.

So, first a background. I started digging for one piece of fabric and soon realized that wouldn't work for me. You see, my name is Diane and I'm addicted to scraps. My quilting philosophy is, "Why would anyone use 5 fabrics when 50 will do?" So I made a scrappy background fabric. 

I decided I needed a fence. Here I went with just one fabric, because this is a one week challenge and I'm not totally crazy. And I have alot of hand dyed gray that had a previous life as table runners at my daughter's wedding. Perfect!

I sandwiched it all together and quilted wood grain into the fence and leaves and flowers into the sky.

I sewed on the flowers and added stems made by twisting assorted fibers together.  Now, some leaves. I liked the idea of home decorating fabrics, but it created a bit of a dilemma because I wanted them to have some dimension, but didn't have alot more time. Part of each fabric had heavy paper on the back. This would prevent fraying if I left it in place, but I didn't want white showing on the backs. So I got out my paints and painted the backs green, cut out leaf shapes and sewed them down creating the veins at the same time. This left the edges loose, so they had the dimension I was looking for.

Now, how does this qualify for the BIG challenge. Absolutely it is the most challenging thing I have worked on all year. All of my PQ projects have been quick and easy. And it put a BIG smile on my face during this time of social distancing. That's the most important thing.  Thank you, Kim and Trish and PQQ.

Created by Diane Lapacek while social distancing in rural Poynette, WI.
24" square.